Posts filed under ‘Uncategorized’

Let me start by saying I am proud to have had the honor of knowing Marty Stroud as a friend and working with him as a colleague for many years. His recent letter to the Shreveport Times[linked] regarding his actions as one of the prosecutors who obtained the conviction and death sentence of an innocent Glen Ford brings great credit to Louisiana’s legal profession, precisely because it sheds light onto all of the things that are wrong with the American criminal justice system in general, and with the Louisiana justice system in particular.

First, and most importantly Marty’s letter shows that miscarriages of justice don’t come about because there’s one or two bad apples in the barrel. It’s not the apples that are bad. It’s the barrel that’s bad!It’s the broken system!Let me make that clear. Wrongful convictions come about because the System is broken.Our broken criminal justice system not only creates the opportunity for good people to do bad things, it incentivizesbad behavior. It produces what Psychologist Philip Zimbardo termed in his book by the same name “The Lucifer Effect.” Good people do evil things not because they are predisposed toward unethical, illegal or immoral behavior, but because of the corrupting influence of situational and institutional forces acting upon them.

The bill of particulars against the Louisiana criminal justice system is far too long to summarize in these few paragraph, but we can list a few, starting with the way we fund criminal justice in this State. Louisiana has a profit-driven criminal justice system funded almost entirely off the backs of the people brought into the system (more…)

The fog of the holidays will soon be lifting. Caddo residents need to gear up for the new year and try not to think about all of the failures and resources we’ve wasted over the past eight years that a failed mayor and school board allowed our system to linger in disrepair. As fun and pretty as the holiday decorations have been, it’s almost lovely to try to get your house back to something you can call a “ normal state” (whatever normal really means.)

I enjoy allowing the holiday to settle into something past, behind me, and try to blaze forward into what I want to believe promises to be a healthier, wiser year! (As a popular and over used children’s chorus sings, “Let It Go, Let It Go!”)

This is a summary of my research on Swag Nation USA, as it is named here. With interest in non-government organizations receiving funds from the RiverFront Fund, which is parish collected funds from the gambling boats here on the riverfront, I discovered that Swag Nation which has as its spokes person here before the Parish Commission, Commissioner Michael Williams. The commission, as stated in the contract, wanted an etiquette program for juveniles that wore swagging paints. [KTAL Story] [KTBS Story]

The NGO’s are funded from the RiverFront Fund except for Swag. Swag has become a budget item like all other operational expenses paid for by the taxpayers of Caddo and not the gamblers at the River Boats.

Swag Nation has a contract with the Parish to provide such a service. Each juvenile with a recommendation from the Juvenile Court Swag gets $350 from the taxpayers for a six weeks course in how to keep up their paints. The parish pays for material and supplies and transportation for this six weeks of training.

It appears the mold, which has 30 years of well-documented history in the current downtown branch of Shreve a memorial Library, has permeated the administration as well as the board based upon the dysfunctional scheduled meeting March 31. It may as well have been an April Fool’s joke on citizens that board members were educated on both meeting protocol and public records responsibilities.

Somewhat shocking to visitors was that board member and public school librarian, Gail Griffin, attempted to close the meeting in executive session before the meeting even began. Fear that criticism would follow, led the call, and with good reason as four public comments each sounded out against the library’s cancelling of the Sunshine Forum during the national celebration of open government. Complaints were offered by local attorney John Settle, public activist, Willie Bradford, blogger and activist Jimmy Couvillion and myself. Yet the board and administration defended the decision to cancel the forum based on the failure to accurately represent the diversity of the community.

Attorney John Settle announced to Griffin and the board as a whole that if they attempted to improperly close the meeting to the public he would sue each member personally and as a board for violating public meeting requirements. The board attorney who was present informed Griffin that legally the board could not close the meeting to the public in the manner in which Griffin requested.

In the twelve-month period of July 1, 2012 through July 1, 2013, the Caddo Parish population lost -2,204 residents. Its population of 257,091 of July 1, 2012 dropped to 254,887 by July 1, 2013. The population drop erases gains registered since the 2010 Census, with the latest report showing 82 fewer parish residents as of July 1, 2013 than the 254,969 reported in the April 1, 2010 decennial head-count. Caddo is Louisiana’s 4th-largest parish by population, behind East Baton Rouge, Jefferson, and Orleans, in rank order.

Neighboring parishes in the Northwest Louisiana cluster show a mix of cumulative population gain and loss since the April 1, 2010 census. Bossier Parish’s population increased 6,844 to 123,823 (+5.9%), and DeSoto Parish gained 427 (+1.6%) residents during the multi-year period, now at 27,083. Joining Caddo Parish in the population loss column are Webster Parish, having lost -529 residents (−1.3%) to 40,678, and Red River Parish, with a loss of -197 residents (−1.2%) to 8,894.

Thanks to each participant, both panelists and interactive audience members, of the “REAL” Shreveport Sunshine Forum Wednesday night for not permitting those who attempted to bully the forum to cease and silence any voice of dissent. Had they succeeded the flickering hope I had that Shreveport might yet succeed would have been extinguished. The apparent evil or criminal element we seem to have inherited would have won. We would have allowed evil forces, people and what they represent, to put us into their box.

The Times story unfortunately stated specifics contrary to the facts we know to be true. The 90th anniversary committee of the Shreve Memorial Library had been organizing special events for the library since last year planned and reserved the original venue.

Second, while it is alleged that the makeup of the panel was not known until the 11th hour, those same records indicate that an all-users email was sent a week before the scheduled event, and that the Facebook event had also been available for a full week prior. Information on some speakers was available to the organizing committee and others even earlier than that. The bullies had yet to realize they may be targeted. [FREE ACCESS to email records here]

DEMAND TO SEE NO COLOR!

Finally, although this was not included in the records I acquired, based on (more…)

It is now much easier to make the case that Governor Bobby Jindal knows his chances of winning the presidency in the 2016 election are securely in his past. In fact, given the record he is now so feverishly and self-destructively building, it is difficult imagining the governor winning another – any – statewide election in Louisiana. In making that case, Exhibits #1 through #50, at least, are on display in Jindal’s bafflingly deliberate and long-running defiance of orders issued by Baton Rouge state district court Judge Janice Clark in a key public records case.

Over five months ago, on April 25th, Judge Clark emphatically ruled in favor of plaintiff newspapers, the Advocate and Times-Picayune, and ordered the LSU Board of Supervisors to “immediately produce” the documents identifying all those who sought the combined job of LSU President and Chancellor. F. King Alexander was selected for the job, and Jindal does not want citizens to know who the other candidates were. Thus he directed his go-to lawyer, Jimmy Faircloth, to burn a trainload of taxpayer money by stiffing the citizenry and Judge Clark … repeatedly … and proudly.

The rarity of observing such a months-long political train wreck was underscored by Lori Mince, the attorney representing the two Louisiana newspapers, in an article yesterday by Mike Hasten of Gannett News. Ms. Mince noted, “This is the first public records case I’ve had when the public body refused to comply.” No one else with whom I have spoken or emailed can remember another such instance, either. Such makes sense because once a public records case goes all the way to court, and a judge orders the documents produced, public officials have every reason and need to, well, produce the documents. That is precisely what happened when a group of us in Shreveport sued the highway department for documents, went up against Jindal / Faircloth’s initial opposition, and headed to Judge Clark’s court. When our hearing came up, the requested documents appeared as Faircloth did the opposite.

To grasp how bizarrely foolish the Jindal / Faircloth / Board of Supervisors argument is, it began with Faircloth arguing that the only word in the related law which mattered was “applicant,” and that there was only one of those, the winner, F. King Alexander. Note that Faircloth made this (more…)

Since Cong. Rodney Alexander announced the deal with Bobby Jindal and Neil Riser to fix the election for Riser to replace him in Congress, I’ve been trying to get Alexander’s email address.

I’ve asked each member of his staff for his address -twice. They don’t even have the decency to respond. I’ve asked other Congressman and other Congressional staffers and they don’t have it.

The lack of availability of Alexander’s email address, coupled with his staff’s refusal to respond makes me wonder what Alexander has to hide.

The email address is furnished to Alexander by the U.S. Taxpayers. It should not be a secret.

Contest

Therefore, I conducting a contest to see to get Alexander’s REAL email address; not the generic one that has been suggested to me. I know some parts of Alexander’s address, but not the complete address.

The first person to send me Alexander’s email address will be awarded 5,000 points. Points are redeemable at any business that accepts points for goods and services.

Member of Alexander’s staff are included in this announcement and are eligible for the prize.